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Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (28 March 1868 – 18 June 1936), primarily known as Maxim (Maksim) Gorky, was a Russian and Soviet writer, a founder of the Socialist realism literary method and a political activist.3 Around fifteen years before success as a writer, he frequently changed jobs and roamed across the Russian Empire; these experiences would later influence his writing. Gorky's most famous works were The Lower Depths (1902), Twenty-six Men and a Girl, The Song of the Stormy Petrel, The Mother, Summerfolk and Children of the Sun. He had an association with fellow Russian writers Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov; Gorky would later write his memoirs on both of them. Gorky was active with the emerging Marxist social-democratic movement. He publicly opposed the Tsarist regime, and closely associated himself with Vladimir Lenin and Alexander Bogdanov's Bolshevik wing of the party. For a significant part of his life, he was exiled from Russia. In 1932, he returned to Russia on Joseph Stalin's personal invitation and died in June 1936. Tossup Questions # In a play by this author, Skrobotov is shot and killed following the closing of his factory. His trip to Capri resulted in a series of poetic vignettes called Tales of Italy. In one of his plays, Protasov works diligently to perfect mankind, oblivious to his best friend's attempts to woo his wife. This author of Enemies and Children of the Sun wrote a play in which Natasha's sister burns her legs by throwing boiling oil on them, and her lover Pepel kills Kostilioff. In that play, his most famous, the idealistic Luka tries to uplift such characters as the thief Vaska and a drunken former actor. That play is about a lodging house inhabited by the dregs of society. For 10 points, name this author of The Lower Depths. # In one of this author's plays, most characters are indifferent to the sudden news of a girl's death, but it makes one man yearn for a faraway city with a "hospital for organisms." That play's cast of characters include a devout Muslim named Tartar and a nameless actor simply called Actor. This author moved to Capri to escape the political climate of his home country, where he was honored by having an amusement park named after him. This author pioneered the genre of (*) socialist realism in his novel The Mother, though he is best known for a play in which the thief Luka listens to stories told by the inhabitants of a crowded boarding house. For 10 points, name this Russian author of The Lower Depths. # In a short story by this author, Gavrila throws a rock at the titular thief after he realizes he had been duped into assisting him on his heist. Another of this author's short stories sees Tanya's daily visits to a set of kringle makers end after she is seduced by a soldier. A poem by this writer compares seagulls, loons, and penguins to a certain bird which flies unafraid of a storm. This author of (*) Chelkash and The Song of the Stormy Petrel wrote a novel where Pelagea Nilovna brings revolutionary literature into a factory after her son is arrested on May Day. Pepel accidentally shoots a man who runs a boarding house, Kostilyoff, in a play by this author of Mother. For 10 points name this Russian Social Realist who penned The Lower Depths. # This author wrote a play in which a man starts a fight over another man having beaten his sister, but the fight is interrupted by a character who gets on top of a stove and starts yawning; that character had earlier declared that "all are equal" after another man stated, "We're all of us… nothing but the bare naked man." This author created a character who fasts for eight days in prison after being insulted in jail and participates in banned-book-reading sessions in Pavel's house that eventually lead to Pavel's arrest, which saddens (*) Pelegaya. This author wrote a play in which the Actor hangs himself after spending some time in Vassilissa and Kostilyoff's house with a thief, a gambler, and Luka. This author of The Mother used the socialist-realist style of literature in a work about a poor house. For 10 points, name this Russian author of The Lower Depths. # This author wrote one short story in which a man who boasts about his virility successfully seduces Tanya, who used to visit the title characters of every morning for a kringle. This social realist author of "Twenty Six Men and a Girl" wrote about Pelageya Nelovna, who supports the acts of her revolutionary son Pavel Vlassov in his play Mother. In another play by this author of The Artamonov Business, Pepel Vaska kills Kostoloff, and the Actor hangs himself at the end of that play, in which Luka is the only optimistic character. . For 10 points, name this Russian playwright of The Lower Depths, for whom the city of Nizhny Novgorod was once named. Category:Literature